May 13, 2012

Spice Up Your Monday!

DWARF CARDAMOM Alpinia Nutans

Candy Babel Is Happy To Be Spinning Again!

Is a fluffy-treats made without any
genetically modified organisms (GMO's),

cholesterol free, transfats free, zero chemicals, gluten free,

No synthetic flavors or artificial FD&C
colorants. With
less then sixty calories each!

More about Cardamom

Cardamom (or cardamon) refers to several plants of the similar generaElettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India, Nepal and Bhutan;
they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in
cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and
small black seeds. Today, the majority of cardamom is still grown in
southern India, although some other countries, such as Guatemala and Sri Lanka, have also begun to cultivate it. Elettaria pods are light green while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown.
It is the world's third most expensive spice by weight, outstripped in terms of its market value by only saffron and vanilla.

Food and drink

Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic,
resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smokey, though
not bitter, aroma with a coolness some consider similar to mint.
Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight, but
little is needed to impart the flavor. Cardamom is best stored in pod
form because once the seeds are exposed or ground they quickly lose
their flavor. However, high-quality ground cardamom is often more
readily (and cheaply) available and is an acceptable substitute. For
recipes requiring whole cardamom pods, a generally accepted equivalent
is 10 pods equals 1½ teaspoons of ground cardamom.
It is a common ingredient in Indian cooking and is often used in baking in Nordic countries, such as in the Finnish sweet bread pulla or in the Scandinavian bread Julekake. In the Middle East,
green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes as well as
traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Cardamom pods are ground
together with coffee beans to produce a powdered mixture of the two,
which is boiled with water to make coffee. Cardamom is used in some
extent in savoury dishes. In some Middle Eastern countries, coffee and
cardamom are often ground in a wooden mortar, a mihbaj,
and cooked together in a skillet, a "mehmas," over wood or gas, to
produce mixtures that are as much as forty percent cardamom.
In South Asia, green cardamom is often used in traditional Indian sweets and in Masala chai (spiced tea). Black cardamom is sometimes used in garam masala
for curries. It is occasionally used as a garnish in basmati rice and
other dishes. It is often referred to as fat cardamom due to its size.
Individual seeds are sometimes chewed and used in much the same way as
chewing gum; it is even used by Wrigley's ('Eclipse Breeze Exotic Mint')
where it states "with cardamom to neutralize the toughest breath
odors." It has been known to be used for gin making.

Traditional medicine

Green cardamom is broadly used in South Asia to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and also digestive disorders. It also is used to break up kidney stones and gall stones, and was reportedly used as an antidote for both snake and scorpion venom. Amomum is used as a spice and as an ingredient in traditional medicine in systems of the traditional Chinese medicine in China, in Ayurveda in India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Species in the genus Amomum are also used in traditional Indian medicine. Among other species, varieties and cultivars, Amomum villosum cultivated in China, Laos and Vietnam is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat stomach issues, constipation, dysentery, and other digestion problems. "Tsaoko" cardamom Amomum tsao-ko is cultivated in Yunnan, China
and northwest Vietnam, both for medicinal purposes and as a spice.
Increased demand since the 1980s, principally from China, for both Amomum villosum and Amomum tsao-ko
has provided a key source of income for poor farmers living at higher
altitudes in localized areas of China, Laos and Vietnam, people
typically isolated from many other markets. Until recently, Nepal had been the world's largest producer of large cardamom. Guatemala has become the world's biggest producer and exporter of cardamom, with an export total of US$137.2 million for 2007.